Archives for November 2016

Whenever I visit Portland, about 10 minutes before arrival I always buy a Trimet Day Pass for $5 on my phone. This enables occasional users like me to use transit at will without giving a second thought to fare media. Well, Seattle is finally catching up. On Thursday, King County Metro and Sound Transit […]

Comments on Sound Transit’s 2017 Service Implementation Plan are due TODAY. Sound Transit staff will then process the comments and submit the service plan to the Board later this month. Send an email to the board emailtheboard@soundtransit.org and to service planning fastride@soundtransit.org now. For maximum effect we suggest you keep your comments short and sweet. Here are what we consider the […]

Back in January 2015, Sound Transit announced a $1.3B federal loan for East Link, the largest single disbursement in the history of the “TIFIA” program. Taking advantage of the continuing low cost of capital in the wake of the 2008-2009 recession, the loan provided favorable repayment terms and a rock-bottom interest rate (2.38%). Well, here comes […]

The ST3 program is widely viewed as disappointing for Kirkland. The city wasn’t quite passed over: I-405 BRT will serve Totem Lake and NE 85th St in 2024, and rail will extend to South Kirkland in 2041. But most observers focus on the missed opportunity to connect Downtown Kirkland via the Eastside Rail Corridor. Why did […]

BY KATIE WILSON If you’re homeless or living on a bare-bones income, transportation is a challenge. With even reduced fares out of reach, chances are you rely on Metro’s Human Services Ticket Program. This program was born of protest. Back in 1991, SHARE (Seattle Housing and Resource Effort) was spending most of their budget buying […]

Last week I attended a conference in Seoul. After long days of, uh, conferring, I wandered the subways and streets of one of the largest Asian megacities. For a great walking city, Seoul is a curiously bad walking city. Things are close together, and the side streets are narrow enough to be dominated by pedestrians […]

Why is Roosevelt development so far ahead of Northgate? 165 new units in Downtown Kent. Restricting development is incompatible with progressive politics. So of course, some unions and immigrant groups are fighting development. HALA Briefing for West Seattle comes up with lots of excuses for why development can’t occur in particular stretches. U-District upzone meeting […]

Lakewood Station finally gets a reverse-peak commuter trip from Seattle … on Black Friday only. Photo from Sound Transit on flickr Many transit agencies close down for Thanksgiving, and a few reduce service the day after. Sound Transit is continuing its tradition of providing at least some Sounder service the day after, with two morning […]

When Sound Transit decided to split the spine for the ST3 package – sending Everett trains to West Seattle and Tacoma trains to Ballard – it did so for a number of reasons. The unprecedented length of the spine corridor meant it was always infeasible to run trains end to end; and capacity concerns in […]

As reported by Mike Lindblom over the weekend ($), State Senator Steve O’Ban (R – University Place) has signaled his intent to file a bill in the upcoming legislative session requiring the direct election of Sound Transit Boardmembers. Just two weeks after an election in which voters explicitly affirmed Sound Transit 3, O’Ban’s contention is that Sound […]

Mesmerizing visualization of 24 hours of bus service across King County circa 2014. You can see the huge influx of buses into downtown Seattle in the morning, the thinning of service later in the evening, and the pulses of buses departing transit centers among many activities. The buses move in straight line between stops, so […]

Sound Transit has unveiled the first designs for its stations on the Lynnwood Link Extension, a 8.5-mile light rail project that will continue the current line north past Northgate to Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood. While there were several open houses this week where comments were taken, the public can also use an online open house to […]

On Wednesday, the Seattle City Council passed a budget that includes a small pilot project for a parking benefit district (PBD). The PBD pilot is the result of several years’ work by the Capitol Hill Eco District and the City Council, and were a key recommendation of the HALA report. The pilot project is notable because […]

Two groups appeal the Waterfront EIS, joining the bike and pedestrian community in decrying the “8-lane highway”. But it’s mixed messaging at its best: the Alliance for Pioneer Square wants fewer buses, the Historic Seattle Waterfront Association wants more surface parking, the transit community wants bus lanes, and the bike/ped community wants a more human […]

BY SEATTLE SUBWAY Unless you have been living under an automobile for the last nine days you are probably aware that last Tuesday, ST3 passed. It’s been a long, winding road to get here, and we have yet to summit the mountaintop, but at the moment the view is great. ST3 is a huge win, […]

The only public hearing on the big UDistrict rezone is tonight at 5:30pm at the Hotel Deca (4507 Brooklyn Ave NE). If you believe abundant housing near transit is an unequivocal social good, please attend tonight and make your voice heard. Since we last covered the rezone in September, the scope has been whittled away somewhat, including elimination […]

Any of you who saw the Seattle Times ST3 precinct map saw a very similar map to 2008, with North/Central Seattle and Downtown Tacoma doing the heavy lifting for passage. Seattle carried King County, and King County carried the region. More people voted Yes on ST3 in King County than voted at all in Snohomish and […]